Sissel Kyrkjebø (born June 24, 1969 in Bergen, Norway), also known as just … Read Full Bio ↴Sissel Kyrkjebø (born June 24, 1969 in Bergen, Norway), also known as just Sissel, is a Norwegian singer. She is best known for singing the Olympic Hymn (Hymne Olympique) at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, for duets with Plácido Domingo, Warren G and The Chieftains, and for participation on the Titanic film soundtrack.

Also she performed during the intermission of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986 in Bergen, opening act of the winter Olympic games in 1994 at Lillehammer, voice to the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish version of “the little mermaid, Sung on the Titanic album (‘My heart will go on’ was originally written to her), Royal Variety show in London 1995, Preformed at annual Christmas concert in Vienna, 2000 Nobel peace price concert with Josh Groban singing “the prayer”, toured with The Lord of the Rings Symphony Tour in 2004 and her latest achievement is a number one on the Billboard classical charts with the christmas album “Spirit of the Season - with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir featuring Sissel”

Sissel's musical style runs the gamut from pop recordings and folk songs to classical vocals. Her work on the soundtrack to Titanic has led to comparisons with Irish singer Enya.

Sissel's combined solo record sales (not including soundtracks and other albums to which she contributed) amount to over 9 million albums sold, most of them in Norway -- a country with only 4.5 million people.

She’s released over 14 studio albums, her Christmas album from 1986 is the best selling album in Norway ever with almost one mill copies sold! She’s featured on several soundtracks and sold well over nine million albums world wide and her popularity continues to grow!

She truly is a northern star!

Here are the lyrics to her song "Ready to go home":

On this street below these walls
Where I used to walk now I can barely crawl
All this darkness rise and tall
Lord shine a light for me I’m ready to be caught

I’m ready to go home
I’m ready to receive forgiveness for my sins
I’m ready to begin

Take this river to the sea
Where the delta flows
The tide is washing over me
Guide this soul to heavens door
Show me where tomorrow lays
I’m waiting to be born

I’m ready to lay down
I’m ready now to sleep a promise I must keep
I’m ready to go home

So time I’ll lay down with these memories
Breathe the shallow deep inside of me
If time has run its course with me

I’m ready to go home
I’m ready to receive forgiveness for my sins
I’m ready to begin

When the evening shadows fall
When the time has come
I let defences fall
To surrenders to survive
I will give up everything to those I leave behind

I’m ready to go home
I’m ready to receive forgiveness for my sins
I’m ready to begin
I’m ready to lay down
I’m ready now to sleep a promise I must keep
I’m ready to go home, again

Going home again

Oblivion
Sissel Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

(Astor Piazzolla/David Zippel)

One stolen kiss from you
And the world I knew went away
And for ever would cease to be
All I had known before
Could exist no more
Only you and me

One look at you left my soul undone
And we drifted to oblivion

You overcome all my heart's defences
No past or future tenses
Live in the world within your arms
Who else could fill all my thoughts and senses?
You are the only one
Oblivion

How could I not have known
I am yours alone, my desire
That I'm destined to be with you
Yours for the rest of time
And the test of time
We will sail right through
One look at you left my soul undone

And we drifted to oblivion
Oblivion

Overall Meaning

The song "Oblivion" by Sissel, initially composed by Astor Piazzolla and David Zippel, is a ballad about an intense, all-encompassing love that exerts a powerful pull on the two individuals involved. In the first verse, Sissel sings about how one kiss from her lover was enough to upend her whole existence and make her prior world feel irrelevant. She goes on to declare that now, only her and her love interest exist for her, and nothing else can compete with the strength of their bond. The song's chorus repeats this message, emphasizing how her lover has broken down all her walls and become her primary focus in life.

The second verse of the song speaks about how the lover has overcome all of Sissel's previous romantic barriers, and how she can't think of anyone else but him. She declares that he is the only person who can occupy her thoughts and senses, suggesting that she is utterly consumed by her feelings for him. Finally, Sissel states that she has realized that she is destined to be with her lover in the long term, and that they will sail through the challenges of life together.

Overall, "Oblivion" is a passionate, romantic song about the transformative power of love, and its ability to reshape one's world entirely around a single person.

Line by Line Meaning

One stolen kiss from you
A single kiss from you was all it took

And the world I knew went away
The entire known world vanished in that moment

And for ever would cease to be
Nothing will ever be the same again

All I had known before
Everything in my life before this moment

Could exist no more
No longer exists in my life

Only you and me
We are the only two that matter now

One look at you left my soul undone
With one glance, you touched me on a deeper level

And we drifted to oblivion
We got lost in each other and in the moment

You overcome all my heart's defences
You break down all my barriers and defenses

No past or future tenses
The present moment is all that matters

Live in the world within your arms
I am completely content and happy in your embrace